An earthling’s place in space is made possible through advanced science and technology. But before the great space race, came the imagination needed to get us there. The same faculty that allows humans the ability to imagine also grants our ability to create art. Space isn’t a place only for astronauts anymore, it is a place for artists (and in this case, both.) Let’s take a look:

The sky is not the limit for producing artistic compositions. Put a camera on a tripod, point at a dark starry sky, and hold the shutter open for about 10 minutes, and the image will show stars as circular arcs.

Space Station makes one revolution every 90 minutes (the Moon takes 28 days). As a result, long-exposure pictures taken from the Station show star trails as circular arcs, with the center of rotation being the poles of Space Station (perpendicular to our orbital plane).

My star trail images are made by taking a time exposure of about 10 to 15 minutes. However, with modern digital cameras, 30 seconds is about the longest exposure possible, due to electronic detector noise effectively snowing out the image. To achieve the longer exposures I do what many amateur astronomers do. I take multiple 30-second exposures, then “stack” them using imaging software, thus producing the longer exposure.

Don Pettit’s “Star Trails”

Don Pettit’s “Star Trails”

Don Pettit’s “Star Trails”

Don Pettit’s “Star Trails”

Wow. Very cool. Very beautiful. Super creative and imaginative. Not much else to say.